


True Love

by callmechristinae



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 12:43:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1429000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmechristinae/pseuds/callmechristinae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was hard not to feel like a failure in love after so many unhappy endings when your parents were pretty much the story of true love kids were told growing up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	True Love

It was hard not to feel like a failure in love after so many unhappy endings when your parents were pretty much the story of true love kids were told growing up. Kids like her who grew up in the real world without magic spells and fairy dust.

Neal had been her first love. Her first true love. The pain was still ripping a fresh gash over the scar that had only recently been healed. He was the father of her child. There would never be a day she didn’t think of him.

Before it had all gone to hell, she could remember lazy mornings in bed with instant waffles and bad daytime TV. They would go out and scout their next hits while playing up the act of a couple in love, even though it wasn’t much of an act. They’d talk about all the things they would do together after this last big final score. Then they’d steal whatever it was they’d had their eye on and move into the next one.

That was part of their love affair. The adrenaline from the thrill of the chase amplified their love.

But none of that compared to the love she could feel coursing through her veins when her son was born. She couldn’t touch him. She knew the moment she looked into his innocent little eyes she’d never be able to tear herself away.

It turned out she was right. From the moment he appeared at her door in Boston, she was his forever.

She didn’t fall in love with the Sheriff. Despite her heritage, love at first sight wasn’t something she put much faith in. But she was growing to love him. The tentative connection between them was ripped away before it could even really take root. So she steeled herself and accepted her fate.

She could live a life where the only love in it was between her and her son. She could have that life and be happy.

Then she got stuck in Neverland and had her ex fighting for her heart with the most famous pirate captain of all time. All this while working with her parents and her son’s adoptive mother to rescue her son from Peter Pan, who was her father-in-law’s long lost now youthful father. When had this become her life?

They tried to ignore her feelings and focus on Henry. But then there was that kiss and everything changed. She acted like it didn’t, but by the way Hook looked at her she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone.

If she had had her memories at the time, she wouldn’t have been surprised that Hook was the one who came for her. It didn’t matter to him that there was drama brewing in Storybrooke. But he knew it would matter to her. So came to bring her back, and it turned out the man she thought she could finally depend on to spend the rest of her life with was a cackling maniacal flying monkey.

She’d never admit it, but she would be forever grateful the pirate captain had pulled her out of New York. Even after she’d had him arrested.

Now she had watched her first love die in her arms. There was probably a term for that in literature, but if she started trying to analyze her life like that she just started to get a headache.

A part of her wanted to curl up in bed and sleep forever, but she had been told by a few reliable voices that that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Besides, Neal had told her to find happiness. It would be hard, especially considering her track record, but she owed it to him for teaching her that she was capable of love.

Those delicate emotions connecting her to Hook grew as he walked across the diner. It wasn’t love yet, but it could be. And if there was one thing she had learned from her parents through all of this, it was that love was something worth fighting for.


End file.
